Just a word now and then about working in a prison and for the Department Of Corrections. Plus a good bit of ranting here and there.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Inmate Art

I found this thing on the yard a while back. Picked it up and stuck it in my pocket then found it the last time I washed my coat.

It's a lighter case. Made out of loose tobacco and floor wax, believe it or not.

Take a lighter and wrap a small bit of thin cardboard, like off the back of a note pad, around it and tape it in place.

Then you dip the thing in liquid floor wax up to the top of the cardboard several times, letting it briefly dry between coats like you were dipping a candle.

Next you cut out two small dirty pictures out of a magazine. Dip the lighter one more time to get a sticky coat of wax on it and stick the pictures to the wax. Then dip it a couple of more times to get a coat over the pictures.

Now you take a small bit of loose tobacco and mix it in with some more wax until it becomes like a paste. You form this paste around the lighter, making sure not to cover the dirty pictures.

Now dip it in wax a few more times. Let it dry and you're done!

You are now the proud owner of an inmate lighter case. Aren't you proud?

It never ceases to amaze me what these guys will come up with, given enough time and a few loose scraps of nothing.

If they could apply that sort of ingenuity to something productive...... but, you know.

I stopped in and saw BG on my way in to work. He was sleeping, but I had a chat with his nurse and she says he's getting much better. They got the bleeding from the ulcer under control, but the accompanying anemia gave him some clots in his leg that they are going to have to contend with one way or another.

She was upbeat, but then she's a nurse and she's supposed to be. He's made improvements, but he's not out of the woods yet. It's going to be some time before he can come back to work, if at all.

Hopefully by tomorrow he will be out of ICU and back into a regular room. The Hive just isn't the same place without him.

Tuesday is Garlic Day. It's also Hanging Out Day and McDonalds Hiring Day. You think with all those weirdo's hanging out all the time, they'd hire more than one day a year. Give those freaks a job!

4 comments:

At least he has 10+ years of time on the books. I'm relieved to hear he's doing better! The hive will run without him, but you're right, not nearly as well. BG needs to take care of himself first. He knows that.

Those are nifty. I never got the point of lighter cases though. It's like a beer can cozy for your lighter, except that the can cozy serves a purpose. Lighter cases mostly seem decorative. I had one once that looked like a metal foot. The toes flipped open and one of those small Bic lighters fit inside. It looked neat, but mostly it just added an extra unnecessary step to using the lighter.